The Sims 4 Gourmet Cooking and Cooking Skills

Recipe List, Mood & Abilities Information and Levelling Fast

The Sims 4's Cooking Skill allows your Sim to make better meals for the Household. Gourmet Cooking is a separate skill, but intimately related to Cooking, so you wlll find both in this Guide. Each level of the Cooking or Gourmet Cooking Skill increases the likelihood a recipe will be made high quality, which gives a better Moodlet to the Sims who eat it. This can help a Sim easier achieve the Ideal Mood for their Skills, Career, or for Socializing. The ultimate reward for pursuing Gourmet Cooking is Ambrosia, which will allow you to bring Ghost Sims back to life, along with the Book of Life (Writing). This Guide will show you a full list of all recipes in The Sims 4 (aside from Quick Meals) and provide tips on levelling the Cooking Skill faster.

How to: Cooking and Gourmet Cooking CheatsPress Control + Shift + C then type testingcheats on and press enter. You can now set your skill level with stats.set_skill_level major_homestylecooking or major_gourmetcooking x (fill in 1-10) - we also have a full listing of Skill Cheats and a master list of Cheats in The Sims 4

Getting Inspired & Good TraitsBoth Cooking and Gourmet Cooking are Creative Skills, therefore their Ideal Mood is Inspired. Being Inspired will not only help you level the Skill faster, it also increases the likelihood your Food will be made in Excellent Quality, which is the highest quality in The Sims 4. To learn how to get Inspired, see the page on Inspired or Emotions Guides. An easy way for Sims to get Inspired is to take a Thoughtful Shower or Browse Art from the Computer. Sims with the Creative Trait will get random Inspired Moodlets, and those with the Foodie Trait can watch Cooking Show for Ideas or Search for Recipe Ideas on the Computer (found under Web).

In order to level the Skill faster, try to always cook while Inspired, and cook the highest level dishes. Upon completing a recipe, your Sim will get a big bump in Experience. This will sometimes be half a level's worth of Skill XP.

Foodies Can Search for Recipe Ideas. All Sims can later Research Cooking Techniques

Unlocking Gourmet CookingGourmet Cooking unlocks automatically at level 5 of the Cooking Skill. If you read a Skill Book, you can level this Skill before reaching that point, but won't be able to cook Gourmet Meals until your actual Cooking Skill is at level 5. So, to do this, just work on your Cooking Skill and provide your Sims with better meals as you go. Unlocking Gourmet Cooking via Skill books is a waste of time that could be better spent practicing regular Cooking.

Meal TimesWhile you can cook any meal at any time, the hours for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, and Dinner are:

Breakfast - 4AM - 10AM

Brunch - 10AM - 12PM

Lunch - 12PM - 4PM

Dinner - 4PM - 2AM

Skills that Complement CookingThe Gardening and Fishing Skills are both obvious complementary Skills for Cooking and Gourmet Cooking. These will give you ingredients that help boost the quality of food and reduce its cost, while also allowing your Sim to pursue cooking the Ambrosia Recipe. A not-so-obvious choice of Skill to go with Cooking is Handiness. It helps greatly with levelling the Skill and making Sims happy in general, as you will get a +1 4h Happy moodlet from 'How Fresh' (upgrading the Fridge with Fresh Maker) and a short +1 Happy Moodlet for upgrading the Oven with Heat Sensors. You can also greatly reduce the likelihood of fire at the Oven and getting shocked by the Fridge when the two items break down.

Food Quality & Saving Meals for LaterWhile I've yet to see an awful quality food, they seem to go from Okay (edible) to Good and Excellent on the positive side. Food can spoil if left out too long. Food stays fresh about 30x longer in the Refrigerator, where your Sims can benefit from cooking Party-size meals and occasionally eating directly from the Refrigerator. To do this, simply drag the item from the counter to the fridge, or click Put Away. You can then select Open on the fridge and have some great, fast breakfasts before work. Fish Tacos might not be the best idea for breakfast, but Sims seem to like it! Fruits and Vegetables do not spoil, so there's no need to store them unless you want them out of the way. At time of writing, the refrigerator does not seem to keep Fish fresh, and they spoil very quickly.

Skill Level UnlocksAt certain points in each Skill, you will unlock new abilities, recipes aside. Here is a list showing the unlocks for both The Sims 4's Cooking and Gourmet Cooking Skill. What each significant ability will do is described below the table.

Get to Work - Sell FoodsThe Get to Work Expansion Pack additions include the ability to open a retail store. This made listing the retail value of foods necessary. Prices are high for excellent quality meals, meaning cooking is a great way to make money with this Expansion. Restocking fees are 80% of Retail sell value, so it's better to cook the item again. This means a kitchen in your store is not a bad idea. Learn more about making money with cooking via the Baking Skill page.

Cooking/Gourmet Cooking Skill Unlocks

Lvl

Cooking Skill

Gourmet Cooking Skill

1

New Recipes only

New Recipes only

2

Combo Add trick move (an Animation)

New Recipes only

3

Talk about Cooking

Fancy Spices trick move

4

New Recipes only

Food produces the Delicious Dish Moodlet, but doesn't it almost always, anyway?

Trick MovesTrick moves make your Sim's animations for Cooking more complex. New abilities unlock as you raise the skill. These are primarily cosmetic and don't help your Sim. They add flair to the cooking process, making it more enjoyable to watch.

FlavorizeThis ability lets you add flavor to dishes. Simply click the Stove and find the ability to Flavorize for $10. This will last for one stovetop meal and boosts the quality of the dish. At some point, it's rather useless since Sims do not get an extra Moodlet from eating the food, and a high level Chef will almost always make Excellent Quality Dishes.

Give Cooking Tips and Share Cooking SecretsThese are both Social Interactions that give Sims a small bump in their skill level. Give Cooking Tips will affect the normal Cooking Skill, while Share Cooking Secrets gives Sims some skill in Gourmet Cooking. It's a great way to make friends, as Sims won't really reject these attempts to mentor them.

GarnishAt level 10 Gourmet Cooking, you can Garnish dishes to bump the quality up one level. This helps if it comes out Okay or Good, but if your high-level Chef is doing the cooking, they'll rarely come in use. It's good if your Chef is in a bad mood and puts out lower quality food.

Moodlets from MealsWhile normal foods that are cooked to an excellent quality can provide a +1, 4h Delicious Dish Moodlet, Omelets at level 7 of Regular Cooking start giving you a +2 5h Fantastic Food Moodlet when made at excellent quality. Every dish above that can provide this when cooked to the same level of quality.

For Gourmet Cooking and excellent foods, it's possible to get this 5h Moodlet much earlier in skill progression, at level 4 with prosciutto wrapped asparagus. However, at level 7 with the lobster dishes it can transform into a +3 6 hour Epic Meal Happy Moodlet. Everything thereafter can provide this huge boost.

Cooking Recipe List

Regular Cooking Recipes

Costs in the recipe list are in the format of single serving/family size (4 servings)/party size (8 servings). Having Ingredients seems to improve the likelihood of an Excellent-Quality Meal, while also helping your Sim's budget by reducing the cost by 25%.

Cooking Recipes

Retail Value is the price of an 'Excellent'-quality party size when sold via Get to Work's Retail Feature at 25% Markup. Thanks to Nutella on our Forum for providing this information. Restocking fees are 80% of this value, meaning Roast Chicken sells for $508 but costs $406 to restock. This means it's usually better to cook it again, rather than pay so much to restock a valuable item.

Grilling Outdoors & The Cupcake Factory

The Cupcake Factory

Both Outdoor Grills and the Cupcake Factory will let your Sim showcase their Culinary prowess through alternative means. The following are unlocked as you level the Cooking Skill. None of these require any Ingredients. All Cupcakes are $0, but the machine itself is $1200, so it takes some time to pay off if feeding your Sims with it. You can offset this with the Sell to Local Bakery interaction, which lets you make a profit off your baked/cooked cupcakes and actually earn money with cooking without going into Retail.

Grilling and Cupcake Recipes

Simolean values listed are cost to make/Retail value when sold with the Get to Work Expansion. As previously noted, it's better to cook items again than restock them, because there is an 80% restocking fee - meaning to restock steak it is $96, as opposed to $37 to grill a new one.

The Outdoor Retreat Game Pack (OR) adds some recipes, which may be grilled, listed in the table above. The grill-exclusive recipes are listed here. I'll likely reformat this table in the future when there are more recipes and data organization is more important:

Gourmet Cooking Recipe List

Gourmet Cooking Recipes

AmbrosiaAmbrosia is the main dish that gives Sims something special for their cooking efforts. Everything else gives a basic Moodlet that doesn't do much. The process of Cooking Ambrosia requires your Sim to hit level 10 Gourmet Cooking, but also to gather special items. Ambrosia has its own page as a result, in order to help you collect the Angelfish, Death Flower, and Potion of Youth that are required for the recipe.

Costs in the recipe list are in the format of single serving/family size (4 servings)/party size (8 servings). Having Ingredients is only required in the case of Ambrosia. Any other time, it seems to improve the likelihood of an Excellent-Quality Meal, while also helping your Sim's budget by reducing the cost by 25%.

Gourmet Cooking Recipes

Retail Value is the price of an 'Excellent'-quality party size when sold via Get to Work's Retail Feature at 25% Markup. Thanks to Nutella on our Forum for providing this information. Restocking fees are 80% of this value, meaning Lobster Thermidor sells for $328 but restocks at $272. This means it's usually better to cook it again, rather than pay so much to restock a valuable item.

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Hello Fellow Sim Chefs! If You're like me when it comes to creating a chef, i love for them to master all things to do with food so they can make the best dishes possible. That means not only cooking/gourmet/baking, but gardening and fishing aswell. You have to cook about 4-5 meals a day to complete your daily task in the Culinary Career. So to have fresh ingredients, dramatically reduces the cost to cook each meal. However, keeping fish in your inventory or your fridge isn't the best idea since their freshness level will start to decay. Rather quickly too. I personally like to have all my ingredients at hand and in bulk. That way when my sim has a whim to make spaghetti i don't have to worry about not having any tomatoes. But again, You want to have fresh ingredients. The fresher the ingredients, the higher quality meal you'll make. So where can we store our fish, where they will stay fresh until ready to be used? A Fish Tank! You can use a fish bowl. Just remember, a fishbowl can only contain one fish, while a tank can hold up to six at a time. Unlike in Sims 3, You don't have to tend to your fish at all. That's right! No feeding. No cleaning. You would say it's purely aesthetic. But we found a new purpose. Storage! Now you can make that herb encrusted salmon your sim was craving without having to spend all day fishing to find one. You caught two last week!Hope This Helps anyone with the efficiency of their game.

Prices of the meals are different in my game when I have the ingredients. They go down more than %25. It is different for each meal, I guess. Also, price of the ingredients doesn't seem to matter. I bought the game a few days ago and it is up to date as a result. They may have changed it.

Didn't have time to make detailed experiments but two examples are:apple pie: normal($45), with apple($10) (quality does not matter)chicken stir fry: normal($14/$41/$55), with single ingredient($11/$33/$45), with both ingredients($9/$26/$35) (quality does not matter)

So the thing I am wondering about is why cant sims cook without required items? I mean I understand it on a realistic view but some of these dishes require you to have these "required items" but doesnt offer you them as a buying choice. I really miss buying eggs, meat, wieners, and stuff and this just makes it hard. Is it something with the sims 4 or a mod that I installed? I really dont know :/

I just happened to notice today that with the City Living expansion, you can visit the produce vendor in the Spice District and purchase produce. It's also a good way to get a head start on planting your own rather than finding a wild plant (e.g. tomato, onion) and waiting around a while for the item to grow and be harvestable.

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